Running has given me so many amazing memories. It has allowed me to really discover myself and what I am made of. Through running, I have traveled to some of the most beautiful destinations I have ever seen and made a lot of great friends along the way. This blog is dedicated to telling those stories.

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Friday, February 12, 2010

Dark Clouds Suddenly Cast Over the 2010 Olympics

This morning I woke up with a little dark cloud hovering over my head. I won't go into detail about why, but it was present. Luckily, I had a very strong umbrella and I wasn't getting too wet (metaphorically speaking).

I was training a client at her house this afternoon and we watched some Olympic news on her T.V while she was doing an interval on her treadmill. At this point, the screen went black and "Breaking News" flashed across the screen. There had been an accident in Whistler during a routine Luge practice run. The reporters warned viewers that the footage they were about to show was quite graphic, and graphic it was. The footage left my client and I in a state of disgust. What they showed on T.V was horrible. Essentially, they showed an Olympian die.

This is a quote from an article I found online that describes the incident, (apparently I wasn't the only one being followed by a little black cloud):

"He was clocked at 144.3 km/h before he hit one side of the wall, crashed into the other, and was thrown off his sled and over the wall. He appeared to hit a metal pole on the side of the track." I think he must have died on impact.

What I want to ask you is, do you think it is alright that CTV showed the accident? Do you think it is fair to him and to his family that his death be posted on the internet and Television for all to see. Is that necessary?

1 comment:

Whether or not to show the footage was a question every media outlet struggled with. Most decided that they should make a disclaimer, then let the viewers decide if they would watch. It's always a tough call; I remember as a child watching a tightrope walker on TV and thinking that they wouldn't show anything if it went badly, but it was a live feed and he fell and died. I was about 8 years old. I couldn't believe what I'd just seen.

Sometimes, though, it's better to see. I had a friend who died while ski-jumping, a horrific freak accident I won't describe. I think my imagination must be worse than what it really looked like.